The piece below was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the art being covered in this piece wouldn't exist.
In the three years since its launch Philly based boutique horror label Cauldron Films has quickly made a name for itself in physical media collector circles, thanks to its eclectic curation and the quality of its releases. Founded by Exhumed Films/Diabolik DVD’s Jesse Nelson and musician Brian Izzi, the label recently released a film that some may recognize as being one half of the first Exhumed Films screening, Lucio Fulci’s surreal nightmare City of the Living Dead, which was screened at the time under its American title Gates of Hell.
Belonging to the loose trilogy of films by Fulci, that also includes The Beyond and House by the Cemetery, 1980’s City of the Living Dead opens with the hanging suicide of a priest in the small town of Dunwich, that opens the titular gates of hell. Like most Italian exploitation we then cut to NYC, where we follow Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl) who mysteriously dies during a séance, where she has a grotesque vision of the priest’s suicide. Like most of Fulci’s films City shares a certain nightmare logic. It’s never really explained why Mary died or why she comes back shortly thereafter, but this death does facilitate a rather unsettling set piece where Mary is buried alive and is saved at the last minute by Journalist Peter Bell (Christopher George).
The two then team up and travel to Dunwich, because they only have 48 hours to close the gates once they’re opened. Nihilistic and phantasmagorical, City of the Living Dead is unsettling as ever. As Peter and Mary attempt to complete their task they are besieged by nightmarish humanoid zombie ghosts that obey no real logic, and are all the more terrifying for it. They take out our supporting cast one by one with gnarly practical effects by Gino De Rossi (Zombie, Cannibal Ferox, Casino Royale) who here is delivering the gory goods. The film was made four decades into the director’s career and was released a year after he turned in the iconic gorefest Zombie and a year before The Beyond, sharing a lot of themes with the latter and the love of splatter of the former. Like Beyond the film uses Lovecraft as its launching point for the director to investigate themes of religion, life in a small town and mysticism.
City looks amazing here on UHD. The film sports an “updated 4K restoration, with a brand new Dolby Vision color grade”. That said the transfer looks clean, with a fair amount of grain present and thankfully little to no DNR. This is my first Cauldron release, and from this film I would assume they subscribe to the same ideology as Vinegar Syndrome as far as their transfers go, and that is to let the film LOOK LIKE FILM. The other limitation often is the source itself or how it was shot, and luckily lensed by Sergio Salvati (The Beyond, Zombie, Ghoulies II) who did an excellent job shooting the film and its effects so as to help them still hold up on with the added resolution and clarity decades later. While they did add HDR, they wisely chose to keep it understated and accentuate the colors, rather than go overboard, which works with the film’s more subdued color palette.
Comparing the Cauldron Blu-ray disc to my 2010 30th Anniversary Arrow Blu-ray was nothing short of a revelation. I previously held off on the latter Arrow edition since the previous disc wasn’t a cheap purchase back in the day and I am glad I held off. That previous disc came early on in the life of the format and shows just how much the format has evolved, since I am comparing apples to apples here or Blu-ray to Blu-ray. The difference starting from a higher res scan makes is unarguable, and its why some Criterion DVDs look better than Blu-rays. The Arrow’s discs contrast is off the charts and that’s turned all the flesh tones a ghostly white. Also while there’s no mention of the origin of the scan on the Cauldron disc, it’s easy to see it’s probably from a much better source due to damage on Arrow. Another choice made by Cauldron that cements where their intentions lie is the lack of the previous 5.1 or 7.1 DTS track instead sticking with either Italian or English 2.0 Mono, replicating the original theatrical experience, rather than adding something that wasn’t approved by Fulci, which I can respect.
The three disc set has one UHD dedicated to the film, another Blu-ray dedicated to the film and four commentaries one featuring one of my favorite commentators Samm Deighan, who approaches the film as a fan. While some commentators get lost in the play by play on screen, Samm’s commentaries tend to be a mix of history of those both in front and behind the camera and observations on themes as an actual genre fan. It’s something that either feels forced on some tracks or just monotonous, when listening to some folks discuss these same topics without any actual enthusiasm. There is also a plethora of entertaining interviews with cast and crew here that do nothing but cement Fulci’s rather colorful reputation of not being the friendliest of directors to his actors. While this may have been true, it says volumes that these folks are still talking about him and his films decades after the fact, especially given the rather stark re-evaluation of his filmography once written off as schlock.
DISC ONE: UHD (FILM)
- Audio Commentary with Samm Deighan
- Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
- Audio Commentary with Catriona MacColl, moderated by Jay Slater
- Audio Commentary with Giovanni Lombardo Radice, moderated by Calum Waddell
DISC TWO: BD (FILM)
- Audio Commentary with Samm Deighan
- Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
- Audio Commentary with Catriona MacColl, moderated by Jay Slater
- Audio Commentary with Giovanni Lombardo Radice, moderated by Calum Waddell
DISC THREE: BD (EXTRAS)
- Zombie Kings (HD – 45:46)
- Requiem for Bob (HD – 28:00)
- The Meat Munching Movies of Gino De Rossi (HD – 26:34)
- Carlo of the Living Dead (HD – 18:13)
- On Stage: Q&A with Venantino Venantini & Ruggero Deodato (Upscaled SD – 46:03)
- Catriona MacColl Q&A from The Glasgow Theatre (Upscaled SD – 20:08)
- Music for a Flesh Feast (HD – 29:25)
- Catriona MacColl Archival Video Intro (Upscaled SD – 5:14)
- A Trip Through Bonaventure Cemetery (HD – 4:49)
- Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew from Paura, Lucio Fulci Remembered Vol. 1 (Upscaled SD – 42:42)
- Trailers (HD – 6:35, 3 in all)
- Image Gallery (HD – 8:41)
Cauldron Films definitely impressed me with this set, has the film lovingly presented and while packed with extras is still only the retail version, with less bells and whistles than their previous long sold out special edition. There’s not just a film here but a philosophy, choosing curation over completeness and an authentic presentation over taking the most advantage of the latest gimmicky technologies. While there’s nothing wrong with that for the right movie, for a film like City of the Living Dead THIS makes sense and feels truer to the director’s original intent if we was still with us. To me that direction on a release says volumes about the intention of not just the curation, but the final presentation as well.
While this may be my first Cauldron release it will definitely not be my last.
